“If you stay in the locker room, what does that say? That says that says I don’t respect that flag and I don’t respect that anthem. And I’m not sure I want to give my money to players who are making millions and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars who don’t respect our country.”

If that feels like political pandering, it probably should. But it also represents the reality the NFL created for itself.

Proponents of players having the right to peacefully protest (a right which the league previously affirmed) are going to continue to believe the league is stifling dissent. People who want to use the anthem as a litmus test of a person’s patriotism will still view anything other than total compliance as a half-measure.

And that’s the tightrope the NFL is going to have to walk, after trying to craft a policy in hopes of offending the fewest people, while truly pleasing few.